Potter Hair
by RodentFace
Summary: When Harry goes into Snape's memory, Lily says that she hates how James always makes his hair look messy.  Why does he do that and does her opinion of his Potter Hair ever change?


**First Year**

James Potter scowled as he looked at himself in the mirror. He was so _sick _of his hair. Why couldn't it lay flat like Remus'? Or better yet, have that graceful slight wave like Sirius? Or at least, stay in place like Peter's? James' hair always resembled a bird's nest. He'd been tempted several times to just cut it so that it was too short to be messy, but he found that if he cut it short, the length wouldn't go well with his hair color. So this left him simply envying his friends.

James looked at his watch and jumped. He had about three minutes until Potions and he was still in Gryffindor Tower. He dashed out of the Common Room hoping the Sirius had saved him a seat so that he wouldn't have to sit next to a _Slytherin_.

"You realize that you're going to be really late, don't you?" a voice from behind him asked.

James turned around to see Lily Evans walking behind him. "Yes, but you are too!" he pointed out.

She shook her head. "I got to Potions early. Slughorn wanted me to give a note to McGonagall. He won't care if I don't make it back on time. You on the other hand…..what were you doing, anyway?" she asked.

"Trying to fix my hair," he admitted sheepishly.

"Why? It looks fine," she said plainly.

"But it never lays flat!" he protested even though he was pleased about the compliment.

"That looks good on some guys. You're one of those guys. Girls aren't so lucky," she grimaced, running her fingers through her red hair and pulling out a tangle.

"I never thought of it that way," he said. From that point on, James never let his hair get _too _tidy for fear that it would look bad.

**Third Year**

"Morning, Evans," James strutted into the Great Hall and Lily rolled her eyes.

"Go away, Potter," she said.

"Now that's not very nice," he said, putting his hand over his heart.

"Right, now go away," and with that, Lily sped off.

"You realize that your hair looks like you just got off your broom, don't you?" Sirius, who'd just come up to talk to James, asked.

"I know," he shrugged and sat down at the Gryffindor table.

"And you're okay with it?" Sirius asked, confused.

"Lily told me that guys with messy hair look good," James said piling eggs and sausages onto his plate.

"I don't think that she really cares about your hair. She mostly just hates your personality," Sirius said wisely.

"Shut up, Sirius."

**Sixth Year**

Lily mostly ignored James after the incident that took place after the Defense Against the Dark Arts O.W.L.s. James couldn't blame her. He stopped asking her out and let her be. This didn't mean that he was over her, no, not at all.

In fact, Sirius acquired something new to hold against James; James decided that he didn't like messy hair anymore. However, he insisted that it had nothing to do with Lily telling him that she hated when he made sure his hair wasn't too tidy. He claimed that he thought it was "out of style" as though he ever paid attention to what was or wasn't in style. What Sirius found hilarious was how James simply couldn't do anything to flatten his hair. He tried wetting it down with water, combing it (he broke three combs in one week), charming it, and "borrowing" Sirius' super expensive conditioner, but not only did none of it work, he now owed Sirius money for the entire bottle of conditioner that he "borrowed."

In the end, Lily ignored him despite all efforts to impress her so it didn't matter if he managed to flatten his hair or if he dyed it purple.

By some act of fate, or perhaps, just sheer luck, James found himself, Lily, Snape, and some Slytherin (whose name he couldn't remember) the only ones left in Potions who didn't have a partner. Lily, who despised Snape more than James now, immediately went to work with James. James had barely been paying any attention during class so he simply did whatever Lily told him to do, which, oddly enough, _got her attention._ She seemed to think that he was less of a jerk than he used to be and was able to have a conversation with him without threatening, screaming at, and/or cursing him.

Finally, by the end of the year, James could safely say that they were friends. It seemed odd to him, but it was much better than asking her out at least twice a day and having her curse him, so he didn't question it.

Just before final exams, everyone (fifth and seventh years especially) found themselves studying late into the night or in some cases, early into the morning. While they didn't have O.W.L.s or N.E.W.T.s to worry about, the sixth years still felt as though they had too much work to do; Lily and James were no exception. One night, James and Lily found himself themselves the only ones left in the common room.

James didn't know if it was the fact that it was June, the fact that the fire was blazing, or the fact that he was alone with Lily, but he suddenly felt very hot. He loosened his necktie and attempted to flatten his hair nervously.

"Alright, here's what I don't get," Lily said looking up from her Transfiguration homework. When she saw James, she started laughing.

"What?" he asked.

Still laughing, she opened her bag, pulled out a mirror, and handed it to him. He stared at his reflection. He'd only made it worse when he tried to flatten his hair and were he not so embarrassed, he would have laughed too.

"Here," Lily took the mirror back and reached over the coffee table. She ran her hand threw his hair, making it messy again. "There! Much better," she smiled at him, then her smile faded quickly. Pink patches crept up her cheeks. "You know, I think I'll call it a night," she said, quickly stuffing her homework into her bag.

"Wait, didn't you say that you had a question?" James asked her.

"No," she lied quickly, "I figured it out." With that, she hurried up the stairs to the girls' dormitories.

James sat there and slowly a grin spread across his face. He ran his fingers through his hair where Lily had just fixed his hair.

**Seventh Year**

"And here I thought that she hated his hair," Remus grinned at Sirius. Lily, who was practically glued to James, ran her fingers threw James' messy black hair.

"James did say once that she said that messy hair looked good," Sirius grinned back, "but I thought that he was just saying that to make himself feel better."

The two of them had been spying on James and Lily, trying to decide whether or not they should go interrupt them. Remus thought they ought to "borrow" James' cloak, but Sirius said, as busy as they were, they probably wouldn't notice if the Giant Squid climbed out of the Black Lake and took part in a wrestling match against the Whomping Willow. This caused the two of them to argue about whether the Giant Squid or the Whomping Willow would win. Sirius was on the squid's side, whereas Remus sided with the willow.

"Well, I think we should just go back to the castle," Remus said.

"Nah, let's go bother them!" Sirius said excitedly.

"You're the one who was trying to get them together for about two years! Are you trying to break them up, now!" Remus stared at Sirius incredulously.

"No, it's just that I had to put up with James going on and on about Lily so I feel that I ought to enjoy their relationship almost as much as they do, only for different reasons of course," he added hastily at the raised-eyebrow-look Remus was giving him.

"Right, well, if you want to go bother them, I'm not stopping you, but I won't have anything to do with it. While I don't want to get hexed by Lily, it would probably be funny to watch her get angry at you," with that, he gave a little bow, got up, and left.

Sirius looked torn, then followed Remus; James' girlfriend or not, Lily was still terrifying.

**Hiding from Voldemort**

"He has your hair," Lily Potter said fondly to her husband as she watched her son sleeping peacefully.

"Yep. He's got Potter Hair," James nodded.

"The girls at Hogwarts are all going to fall for it," Lily chuckled.

"Yes, but he's only going to fall for red hair," James nodded wisely.

"I still don't believe in this Potter Curse thing," Lily shook her head fondly.

"It's real. Only, Potter men like to call it The Potter Blessing, but I suppose it doesn't really have the same ring to it."

Lily laughed. "So, you think that Harry is going to fall for a redhead? Who?"

"Um, didn't Gideon say during at Order Meeting that his sister Molly just had a girl?" James mused and Lily laughed.

"So Harry's going to marry Molly Weasley's daughter?"

"He could, but you never know. What I _do _know is that he's going to fall for a beautiful redhead, like all Potter men do," he said rather pointedly to Lily who smiled.

"And this redhead, that is, if she _does _end up being a redhead, is going to absolutely fall for him," Lily grinned. "Who wouldn't love that hair?"

**Fifth Year, Sixth Year**

Ron Weasley stared out of the window. He could barely see the figures of his sister and his best friend. Gryffindor had just one not only the match, but also the cup, but he wasn't feeling very festive. He was mostly feeling shock. His best friend had just kissed his sister.

Hermione came over and sat down next to him. "Are you alright?"

"Yeah," he cleared his throat. "I didn't see that coming."

"You didn't?" she gave him an almost-pitying look.

"And you did?" he asked with an almost challenging edge to his voice.

"It was rather obvious," no matter how hard she tried, she couldn't keep the smugness out of her voice.

Rather than getting in an argument about how it _wasn't _obvious and that Hermione was just really smart (which she would probably take as an insult somehow) Ron stared out the window and tied to see what Harry and Ginny were doing. They were standing by the lake, glued to each other just as Ron had expected.

Hermione followed his line of vision and rolled her eyes. "Oh, Ron, please….."

"I'm alright with it," he grumbled. "But that doesn't mean I _like _it." He scowled as Ginny ran her fingers through Harry's hair.

"She did always like his hair," Hermione smiled at her the two of them while Ron looked rather disgusted.


End file.
